The Bond
by Oshaberi
Summary: When Team Rocket took control of Johto, they brought with them the miracle of Bonding-- the fusion of body and soul between humans and pokemon. This seems like a rosy future for the previously chaotic region, but are their darker plans ahead?
1. Prologue

_Author's Note: This story has a lot of different aspects that may be difficult for me to explain. This prologue is somewhat lengthy and attempts to explain some of the background of the plot. If something doesn't make sense in this chapter, it should be resolved in chapter one. Otherwise, enjoy. Also, please review if you like it, or if you feel you have something to say that will improve it. Thanks!_

**Prologue**

My heart was pounding out of control, even though I was sitting down. I looked around the room to try and find some source of comfort to quell the building nervousness. It looked like a regular Pokemon Center—bright and cheerful—aside from the obvious lack of a healing machine. Of course, that only made sense. This wasn't a standard Pokemon Center, it was a Bonding Center.

Unable to sit still any longer, I jumped up. Rezzie, my Furret, squeaked in surprise and leapt out of my lap, only to jump back into my outstretched arms. I buried my face in his soft fur as I walked towards a bulletin mounted on the wall. Papers were pinned very neatly across the board, all information about the Bonding process or various other technical notices. My eyes scanned over the one in the middle, although I had already read it enough to have it memorized.

"… The Bonding process, perfected by Rocket scientists over a decade ago, is completely safe and painless for both the patient and their pokemon…"

"… A trained Rocket expert will perform the procedure, which will take less than three hours…"

"… Bonding is a wonderful and exciting experience that will bring the patient and their pokemon closer than ever before…"

"… Bonding is truly the melding of the two souls into one body…"

"… Physical changes will typically appear three to five hours after the procedure is completed… and will continue to develop for up to four months…"

"… Bonding is the first step in becoming a Rocket Unit, a trained professional with many opportunities for success in New Johto."

Reading it over again eased my tensions. I looked down at Rezzie, who was squinting at the papers as if trying to decipher their purpose. His face made me giggle, and I hugged him tight against me. I loved Rezzie, and soon he would realize just how much. Today, we were going to be Bonded. I tossed the thought around in my mind. Ivan and Rezzie… we'd be Izzie. I giggled again at the thought.

I walked back over to the waiting area where I had been sitting before. My mom looked up from her book and smiled. I sat down next to her.

"Nervous? I'm sure this is a lot for a ten-year-old to deal with." She closed her book.

"A little…" I laughed nervously, stroking the fur along Rezzie's back. "It's taking them forever!"

"You read the paper they sent, Ivan. It takes several hours. The last patient should be done soon." She shrugged.

"Can I ask a question, Mom?"

"Of course."

"Why do they call it 'New Johto'? Was there an 'Old Johto'?"

She frowned. "It used to just be called Johto, before Team Rocket stepped in and changed things."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did they change things?"

"That's more than one question," she rolled her eyes, "But they did it because they had to. Things were horrible back then. You'll learn about it at the Rocket Unit Academy in a couple years."

"Why can't you tell me about it now?" I was getting nervous again, and I wanted her to distract me.

"Ivan, don't whine. It's annoying. You won't understand, anyway." She looked at me for a moment, awaiting signs of surrender, but I was stubborn. "Alright, fine. But I'm telling you, you won't get it, and I'm not going into details that you don't need to know at your age. Let's see… well, the Elite Four—"

"The what? Who?"

"Shush!" She brought her hand up and hit me lightly on the head. "The… the government, okay? They started getting nervous because Team Rocket was developing all this new technology—like Bonding—and the Elite Four was used to blaming them for everything, so they didn't want people to know—"

"Why would they blame Team Rocket for anything?" I was incredulous. How could the people who ran the whole society of New Johto have done anything wrong?

"If you're going to keep interrupting," she gave me a look, "I'm not going to tell you anything more. Okay? So… the Elite Four tried to get Team Rocket out of Johto by arresting their members and destroying their scientific facilities. There was an entire branch of the police devoted to stopping them, can you believe that?"

"No…" I was imagining a police force of officers chasing after Rocket scientists, with Growlithes trailing behind, ready to burn their laboratories down.

"Well, it happened. Then—" She stopped abruptly as the side door slid open with a mechanical sound.

"Ivan and Rezzie?" A fair-haired Rocket nurse read from clipboard, standing in the newly opened doorway.

I stood up, holding Rezzie close to my chest as my heart began to beat faster. This was it. I looked to my mother. She smiled encouragingly, probably relieved to be spared from further history lessons, and waved me on. The nurse smiled as I walked towards her, and she stepped out of the way to let me through the door. It was cold in this part of the Bonding Center, and the familiar bright wallpaper was replaced with sheets of steel.

"This way, Ivan." Well, obviously—there was only one hallway here. We walked down the brightly-lit stretch together, silently. I looked over at the shining walls, and tried to make out details in the fuzzy reflection of myself. A blob of blonde gave away my hair quite easily, but my skin was too dull to reflect definitively on the metal surface. Rezzie was also discernable, a shapeless brush of brown and tan in my arms.

Rezzie… I had tried to explain to him this morning what Bonding was all about. He had given me a confused look at first, but I think he understood. In any case, I could explain in to him when our minds were one. Or maybe when that happened, he would already know? Would he know everything I did as soon as it popped into my mind?

One question brought a wave of new ones crashing down on me. What would we look like? I had seen plenty of Bonded people, and they all looked fine, but what if something went wrong and we were deformed? Would we be tall, or small like Rezzie? I looked down at him, then suddenly noticed how bare my arms were for the first time. Would we have fur? A tail? Would we share the same soul or would it be the two of us in the same body?

"Ivan?"

I jumped at the nurse's voice. We had reached the end of the hallway—it was shorter than it seemed—and she was holding a door open for me, waiting.

"S-sorry…" I hurried in. Rezzie looked up from his resting position in my arms, and shivered. It seemed a silly thing to do now, when it was just as cold outside the room. I let my gaze drift around the room as I found a chair to sit in. It was almost as big as the waiting room, but not nearly as friendly. The walls were metal, and the floors tile, just like the hallway, and the walls were lined with dangerous-looking instruments.

The nurse took a seat at a metal-plated desk, and entered text swiftly into the computer. I gripped Rezzi tighter as I examined the centerpiece of the room, a large contraption that consisted of two big tables and various lights and buttons. It was metal, of course; it seemed like everything here was.

"Okay, Ivan," the nurse tapped a last key and then turned to me, "This is a big day for you. This is Rezzie, right?" She gestured toward the Furret, who seemed more nervous than before. He squirmed slightly in my grip.

"Yup," I tried to smile normally, "We're getting Bonded."

"Are you sure he's the one?"

Her tone took me by surprise. When people and pokemon were Bonded, it was because they were inseparable before—Bonding just completed the connection. The way she talked, though—and the way she looked at Rezzie—was almost as if she found him… _below standards_.

"Yeah. I love him. And he loved me."

"…Okay." She smiled, but I couldn't trust that smile anymore. She made me uncomfortable. I didn't like her. "Well, unless you have any questions, we can begin the process now. Please follow me."

I did so. She led me to the strange machine, and beckoned for me to sit on one of the large tables. Before I did, though, she grabbed Rezzie out of my arms, getting a disgruntled cry in return. The metal was cold, and it almost burned when I pushed myself up. The nurse set Rezzie down on the other table, then pulled the straps dangling under it over his furry mass.

"You can probably do your own straps, Ivan. Just pull them over your legs and waist—yes, just like that, good. I'll do your upper ones."

"Why do we need straps? It's not like we're going to be moving around a bunch." Or were we?

"You'll be under anesthesia, so most likely not. However, if the process is interrupted, there could be some… unsatisfactory results, so we do it as a precaution."

That was not comforting. Neither was the needle she had begun filling with tinted fluid.

"Um…"

"This is the anesthesia. It will only hurt going in, don't worry."

"I hate shots." I shivered.

"Then look away, and don't tense up. Here, I'm doing it right now, be ready."

I quickly turned away from her as she sterilized my arm with a cold wipe. I looked at Rezzie, and his eyes met mine. He looked confused, just as he had when I tried to explain to him what was going to happen today. He squeaked, and tried to squirm out of his bindings.

"Don't move, Rezzie, you need—OW!" The needle stung as it entered, but the area was quickly numbed by the spreading of the cool liquid injected into it. Rezzie froze as he heard me cry out, and he looked terrified.

"The anesthesia will kick in soon, then you won't feel a thing until the doctor's finished." She smiled again, but I didn't smile back.

"Who's the… who's the doctor?" My mind already felt a little fuzzy. I tried to focus on her as she filled another syringe, for Rezzie, probably. The liquid had a different color.

"A trained expert. He's with the previous patient in the recovery room." She walked briskly over to Rezzie, and injected him with the medication as well. He squirmed and cried out in pain, but soon it settled down to a whimper.

"Alright, Ivan, you'll be drifting off any minute now. Just relax. I'll inform the doctor." She smiled one last time, turning on the bright lights above, then leaving.

I looked over at Rezzie. He seemed to be in pain still, and his eyes were full of fear. He looked at me as if… pleading. It hurt me inside.

"S'ok, Rezzie…" I was having trouble forming sentences, but I needed to comfort him. I couldn't stand that face. "S'ok, we'll be together soon…"

He looked at me for a while longer, still terrified. His eyelids began to droop, however, and soon they were only slits, trying to convey some message that he couldn't speak.

"G'night, Rezzie…" I mustered the strength to smile for a few seconds before drowsiness washed over me. "G'night… see you in the morning…"


	2. Chapter 1: A Waiting Stranger

_Author's Note: This chapter is really long and boring, but hopefully after all this background stuff we can have some fun. _

**Chapter 1: A Waiting Stranger**

"Ivan, don't give up! Get up!"

Groaning, I stumbled to my feet, a brisk sweep of my tail stabilizing me. My opponent stood dead ahead, panting with effort. Her pale face was flushed with red, but there wasn't a drop of sweat on her face—certainly due to her already simmering Ponyta blood.

"Ivan, think back to your lessons. It's your move." The teacher shouted at us from a chair at the corner of the large Gym. Students sat around on the floor, awaiting their turns to battle.

There was really no use in trying to defeat her—Victoria was one of the top students in Training class. She was Bonded with her Ponyta two years back, not too long before me, and she had grown into it wonderfully. Following the teacher's orders, I scanned my mind for what I could do. I was close to collapsing… better to get it over with sooner.

Victoria braced herself as I leapt forward, slamming into her with a quick jump. Her long hair covered me in a tangle of red, and it was searing hot to the touch. For a moment we seemed hung in midair, but she quickly stabilized herself under me and twisted her body to send the full flame of her tail into my chest. It was too much; I pushed myself away and fell down before her.

"Well, looks like Victoria wins this battle," The teacher scribbled something into his notebook, "Someone get Ivan off the floor. Carrie and Bridget, you're next."

-o-O-o-

A couple hours later, the class was shuffling back to the Rocket Unit Academy. Most of us were bruised up, others were gloating in their lack of injury. We were just a bunch of normal twelve-year-olds, laughing and teasing, walking through Goldenrod City. I looked back to the crowd of students behind me. Victoria was talking with her friends, her crimson curls bouncing as she walked. She saw me looking back and waved. I smiled and waved back. There were never any hard feeling during Training class; everyone won or lost at some point.

After some time we found ourselves back at the Academy. Before entering, we split off into our class groups to be counted. Students were grouped based on what kind of pokemon they were Bonded with—a system that made perfect sense when people like Victoria were considered, who couldn't even sit at a normal desk. Our group—the "Normals"—was surprisingly small, but not entirely unexpected. Non-Normal Bonded students tended to have more opportunities to work within Team Rocket because of their specialties, so parents would sometime encourage their children to Bond with such pokemon.

"… And Ivan… and Mark... Samuel… okay, Normals, head to your next class." The teacher shooed us away before turning to yell at the rowdy Waters.

"Hey Mark, are we going to History today?" I asked, walked up behind him. He looked up from wrapping new bandages around his tail. His Smeargle side meant it constantly produced green liquid, and even outside of battle he always had to rewrap it in thick dressings.

"No, today is Technology. Every other day, remember?"

"Oh yeah," I grinned, "Thanks. I wish we'd do Battle more often, though."

"Well, we're _Normals_," He rolled his eyes, "They just want specialty types to battle. But that's okay, that means we'll be smarter!"

I laughed, then hurried behind him through the classroom doors. It was a common joke among our group—a mere seven students—that other groups weren't trained in intellectual studies because they weren't as smart as us. It was a sorry lie, but we had to keep up to them somehow.

"Hey, get in your seats, we have a long lesson today." The teacher stood at his desk, tapping on the side with his fingers. Like all the other teachers, he wasn't Bonded, and he wore the generic Rocket instructional uniform. His black hair was combed enough to be presentable, but still frizzed out everywhere.

We all quickly got to our desks, and found some way to sit that was comfortable. It was different for each of us; we were each Bonded differently. Some had tails to contend with—like Mark or me—and some had to deal with things like odd body shapes. Settling down easily, I looked around the familiar room—a small space, crammed tight with various contraptions hanging from the walls and ceiling.

"Alright," The teacher walked behind his desk and pulled out a small suitcase from behind it, "Today I've got a history lesson for you kids. Emily, don't give me that look, deal with it."

We all watched curiously as he unlocked the case and opened it, turning it so that we could see its contents. Straining my neck, I could see a neatly organized set of disks, each slightly tinted a different color. He waited. We stared.

"… Well, if no one's going ask what it is…" He rolled his eyes and carefully reached down to pick one up. "This is a Technical Machine, or a TM. Whatever. I'm willing to bet money that none of you have seen one of these—put your hand down, Samuel, I know for a fact you're too sheltered. Anyway, these used to be all over the place in the E4-Era, when pokemon training was still legal."

Everyone sat still at the mention of the pokemon training. Outside of vague lessons in History, we never heard much about it.

"These small machines are wonderful inventions, despite not being Rocket technology. When used on a pokemon, it allows it to learn new attacks and strategies, even if it's something that it did not have the intellectual capacity to before. For example, this one…" He held up the one in his hand. It flashed yellow as light hit it. "… Will teach a pokemon to produce a thunderbolt, even if that pokemon is not an Electric type. Pokemon trainers would use these often to make their pokemon stronger, for use in battle. Yes, Emily?"

"Sir, why is pokemon training illegal now?"

The teacher stopped, and from his face I thought he was going to yell at her. He seemed to consider it for a moment, but then he laughed… a bit too nervously. "Geez, what do they hire these History teachers for? Pokemon training is illegal because there's no need for that sort of brutality. Now that we have Bonding, pokemon and human can battle together. They're on equal grounds. It prevents abuse. Right? You have the souls of pokemon within you, you can feel their gratefulness, right?"

Everyone nodded, except me. I felt left out, but… even trying as hard as I could, I could not reach Rezzie. It was as if our bodies were Bonded, but our souls went separate ways. Was I strange? Was I not good enough to feel the connection?

"Anyway, back on topic. Rocket scientists are working over the border in Kanto to develop Technical Machines that are able to work on Bonded battlers. However, as you know—or maybe you don't—Kanto still used the E4 type of government, so the scientists are having to work undercover and in secret laboratories."

"Sir, why can't Team Rocket just take over Kanto, too?" Mark asked.

"It's not that easy. Pokemon training is still legal in Kanto, as it is in most other parts of the world, so the government is using trained pokemon to hunt down undercover Rocket scientists. But, that's not to say we can't fight back." He grinned, then gestured around the room. "Students like you are our future in Kanto. The Elite Four may be able to whip pokemon into obedience, but can they connect with them on such a level that there is no physical barrier anymore? They say that Bonding is an atrocity, yet they force pokemon to slave away for their political entertainment. As we speak, Bonded graduates from the Academy are being sent over to help the fight for liberation. Someday, New Kanto children will look up to you and say, 'I want to have that relationship with my pokemon', and they will be able to wear the Rocket uniform with pride, as you all are now…"

-o-O-o-

When school let out that evening, the setting sun was hidden behind thick rainclouds. The rain made the city misty and blurred, and everything seemed just slightly uncertain any mysterious. I watched from my perch on the outside stairs as the Fires scrambled towards an underpass, where the Grounds and Rocks already stood shivering. For once, I was glad to be a Normal.

I waited until most people had cleared out to start walking home. My house was on the other side of Goldenrod, so I had quite a ways to go. As I strolled, I thought back to today's lessons. What the Technology teacher said still made me uncomfortable. Rezzie… where were you? Ever since I woke up after the Bonding, I felt… empty. My last memory was of his terrified face looking up into mine, pleading something from me that I could not understand. That image still disturbed me.

I was pulled out of my thought by a dim glowing ahead of me. I squinted to try and see what it was, but in the waning light and the fuzzy rain, it was impossible. I had never seen anything like it; it seemed to be pulsating, like a soft purple heartbeat. I slowed my pace; it made me nervous. I was close enough now to hear a faint voice, and I strained to hear what lied ahead.

"Sir… have to ask… not welcome here… cooperation is…"

I could see two blurred figures standing in the rain now, both wearing. As I drew even closer I could tell that one was obviously a Rocket officer, and the other… the other made me duck behind a trashcan as soon as I saw him.

He was tall, and completely bald. He seemed to be Bonded, but to what pokemon I could not even imagine—certainly nothing from New Johto. Where ears should have been were two strange blocks of flesh, lined in the center with green, and all over he was a strange shade of orange. His attire was ridiculously conspicuous; he wore a long black coat with no indication of a shirt underneath, and darkly tinted sunglasses.

None of this was as disturbing to me, though, than the fact that the Rocket officer seemed absolutely terrified of him.

"Sir, please come with me. You're not authorized to be out here without a Bond license." He gave no indication that he was going to try and make him.

"I will stay here. I am waiting for someone." The man spoke with a deep voice, and seemed to be distant.

"Um… you can't really…" The officer seemed lost in awkward fear.

"I will stay here."

I was enthralled with this stranger; I couldn't look away. The officer and he went back and forth, never getting anywhere. I was so engrossed in listening to their futile argument, wondering what was going to happen, that I didn't notice that I wasn't the only one listening until it was too late.

It took less than a second for gloved hands to wrap around my mouth. I could feel hot breath on my fur as someone lowered their face to my ear.

"Don't make a noise," It whispered, almost too soft to hear, "You'll regret it."

I was paralyzed with fear, and had no intentions of struggling. Whoever had me in their grasps—a woman, I thought, judging by the voice—seemed to be exerting a force over me mentally. Something like this would not normally scare me so deeply that I would not fight; it was as if my fear was being amplified. I was quickly pulled behind the trashcan, so that the man and the officer were out of view, but I could still hear their voices.

"Sir, can you please remove your sunglasses?"

"For what reason?"

"Concealing personal identity is illegal in New Johto."

"Very well. I will tell you, though, that I am not from New Johto."

This statement seemed to draw a reaction from whoever was holding me, as she jumped enough to slam rather conspicuously against the trashcan.

"…Shit."

"Who's there!?" The officer snapped defensively in our direction, his voice tense. When neither of us made a sound—as hard as I was trying to against my mental block—we could hear his footsteps splash in the rain as he walked towards us. After they stopped, I held my breath—and then the trashcan was kicked over.

It would have been an interesting scene, had anyone been there to see it: A bright-haired Psychic woman holding a Bonded child hostage behind a felled trashcan, a shocked police officer in a Rocket uniform, and a confused bald man taking off his sunglasses to reveal that he had no eyes.


End file.
